De La Rue Gas Development
Note: subsidiary of Thomas De La Rue and Co
1945 Thomas De La Rue and Co identified gas water heaters as a second area for growth. Appointed Leopold Friedman as managing director; he had great experience in the gas industry[1]. The company acquired Thomas Potterton (Heating Engineers) and set up another new subsidiary De La Rue Gas Development and Perfecta Gas Appliances Ltd. To address the bottlneck in castings, purchased Emscote Foundry of Leamington, which was also producing a gas cooker; production of this cooker had been increased to 1000/month [2]. Factories leased at Gateshead and Elstree.
1949 The division was renamed Gas Division. Due to crushing effect on demand of the level of purchase tax, production of multipoint water heaters was restricted and plant and machinery from other factories were concentrated at the Tynemouth works. The development and sale of Potterton boilers and gas cookers would be expanded; the Warwick foundry, were gas cookers were made, was working to capacity[3]
1954 Discontinued multi-point water heaters; the Potterton gas cookers and boilers were in demand[4]